We know first-hand that walking a reactive dog can feel overwhelming at times, but with the right tools, preparation, and mindset, you and your dog can enjoy safe and enriching walks. Remember, progress takes time, and each step forward—no matter how small—is a victory. Whether you're avoiding areas with off-leash dogs or working on obedience training, you're building a bond with your dog that’s rooted in trust and understanding.
At Nervy Mutt, we’re here to support you every step of the way. Be sure to check out our range of neon bright human apparel designed to with comfort, durablity and visibility in mind. And don’t forget, you're not alone—there’s a whole community of dog owners just like you, learning and growing together.
1. Avoid Areas with Over-Friendly Off-Leash Dogs
When you first visualise having a dog, many of us think of similar scenarios: Days out at the park, your dog off playing with their dog friends while you chat to other owners having a merry old time. But for many of us this isn’t how things panned out, and on the contrary this image now evokes a sense of dread. So, for those of you with dogs reactive on walks, simply avoid these areas.
We know its not fair that we should have to make accommodations for people and their friendly dogs with little to no recall, but we suggest this with your dog’s best interests at heart. Even if your dog isn’t reactive, we recommend avoiding these spaces as over-friendly off-leash dogs aren’t able to correctly read or respond to your dog’s body language, and they’ll often push the boundaries of even friendly dogs.
So do yourself and your dog a favour, just avoid these hotspots all together, you’ll thank us later.
Tip: To avoid these areas, plan your route. This way you can mix it up with different environments and challenges, without putting undue pressure on your walks with impromptu greetings from Karen’s doodle. You can also plan in decompression walks, city walks, and more rural to ensure you’re making the most of each session, walks can be enriching for the human too!
2. Use The Right Equipment for Your Nervous Dog
Finding the equipment that works for you and your dog might take some trial and error, but it’s important that any piece of equipment you use, regardless of whether that’s a harness, slip lead or even a muzzle, the time is spent to condition the equipment correctly. If this isn’t something you have done before, we suggest connecting with a reputable trainer with evidenced results utilising the equipment you’re seeking to use.
Notably, there is nothing wrong with changing equipment if its clear your dog is finding it more aversive or less enjoyable. Learning to understand subtle cues in your dog’s body language will be key here, often it can be as simple as a lip lick or a whale eye showing their discomfort, other times it may be more obvious, like physically moving away, or rolling upside down to avoid you putting on the equipment.
For example, our nervous rescue dog, Newt has a strong aversion to harnesses, we spent the time conditioning the harness so he can wear one, but its otherwise not part of our day-to-day equipment.
Tip: Every dog is different, and every dog will respond differently to each piece equipment, your equipment might even change based on the activity or environment. For example, you might you a harness for scent work or mantrailing, while you might use a slip leash for street walks. Just as you might use a long line for teaching recall in a field, and a short lead for street walks or a muzzle for busy environments and no muzzle for walks where you’re not going to meet anyone/any dogs.
3. Wear High-Vis Dog Walking Clothing
When walking or training in a public space it’s important to communicate clearly what you need from your dog, but also what you need for others. Making sure that you can be clearly seen in the first step in achieving that. If someone can’t see you, how are they going to ensure that their dog does approach you? Wearing hi vis ensures you can always be seen, regardless of what time of day it is, or the weather. The sun could be in someone’s eyes, but they’ll still spot you hi-vis standing out like a sore thumb!
4. Stay Calm and Confident
Let’s start with a caveat that we know this is easier said than done. But did you know that as humans our communication is 55% nonverbal – that's over half our communication perceived without uttering a word. This includes our body language, facial expressions, even the tension that were holding. So, if you’re tensing up when you see a dog, your dog can absolutely recognise this, which could be contributing to their behaviour.
Don’t be afraid to talk yourself through it step-by-step until it becomes unconscious practice, keep your shoulders and eyes up, the leash short but loose, add in some circles or figure eights if you need to break your dog’s fixation and don’t forget to breathe! It should go without saying, only do this if its safe to do so, don’t put yourself, your dog, or anyone else at risk, but you can start practicing with people your familiar with first, then gradually increase the difficulty, don’t forget to mark and reward too!
If you don’t have any friends willing or able to go with you, or perhaps you’ve become a little isolated because of your anxious dog, lots of trainers are now offering group training and pack walks, these present a perfect opportunity for training around other dogs under the watchful eye of a professional to give you real-time feedback on the timing of correction and rewards as well as advice on how to progress. You’ll also get to meet lots of people having a similar experience with their dogs.
Owning a reactive dog can be lonely, knowing you’re not alone on the journey is reassuring, and you can cheer each other on, celebrating all the successes.
5. Practice Your Reactive Dog Obedience Training
Dogs are associative learners, so think less about what you don’t want them to do, and more about what you want them to do instead. For example, you could counter condition for when they see a dog, they heel. Start at a good distance, and use food or toys to lure, with practice over time you’ll be able to stop luring and reduce the level of reward required.
Obedience doesn’t have to be strict or boring though, mix it up and have fun with it, ultimately the goal is to have your dog actively engaging with you whilst building confidence.
Tip: Charge your marker! If you don’t have a solid marker, it can be really difficult to reward your dog at the right time for them to recognise the behaviour they’re being rewarded for. Your marker can be whatever you want it to be, most people use “YES”, but it could be “SPAGHETTI” as long as you use it consistently and swiftly follow up with their reward, although we recommend one syllable words!
To charge your marker simply start with saying the marker word, or using a clicker, and immediately following up with a reward, most often food. Practice this in several reps, then you can move onto asking for simple behaviours like sit using your marker as soon as they action the behaviour, swiftly followed by the reward. Getting your timing right is key so practice lots at home and build that association which will help when you then take them out and about, so when they see a trigger, before they can react you mark and reward, gradually changing the association with the trigger.